Author: Calleen Hough

What you see is what you get

Culture is an unseen force that causes us to become like the people we spend a lot of time with. Every family and organization has its own unique culture. The head of the family or leader of an organization plays an important role because members naturally follow his queue about what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior. That is why Christians need to be careful about who they associate with and what organizations they belong to.

Solomon stated in Proverbs 27, “Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend” and “as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man” (Proverbs 27:17,19). In other words, we are a reflection of those around us. If you want to know what you are really like, take a close look at your friends.

The fool

In general, a fool is someone that believes in himself rather than God (191). It is possible for a person to have a relationship with God and still be a fool (3684). Solomon described the fool that knows God, but does not understand his ways, as being unreliable, a bad investment with regards to doing God’s work (Proverbs 26:6-9). And yet, Solomon said, “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope for a fool than of him” (Proverbs 26:12). To be wise in one’s own conceit means that in one’s view or opinion it is possible to master the art of living. In other words, the man wise in his own conceit can figure things out on his own, he doesn’t need God’s input.

The word hope is often used figuratively in the Bible to convey the idea of expectations (8615). The word translated hope in Proverbs 26:12, tiqvah literally means a cord that is used to bind things together (6961) or as an attachment. In this sense, you could say that having hope is being attached to a certain outcome. You want something in particular to happen. The problem with being attached to a certain outcome is that we might be disappointed when things don’t turn out as we expect them to. That’s why it is foolish to get our hearts set on something that is not God’s will.

When I was a young Christian, I had my heart set on having a big family. After I was married, I had three children and then my husband had a vasectomy. For a long time, I thought he had made a mistake and might change his mind about having more children. When he didn’t, I became resentful and felt my husband had cheated me out of my right to have more children if I wanted to. Eventually, I became angry at God because I was stuck with a husband that didn’t want children. Now that I have reached the age where I am no longer able to have children, I realize that it was not God’s will for me to have more than three children. Because I have matured in my faith and understand God’s ways a little better, I am very thankful that I have three children. Compared to having no children, three seems like a big family.

Self-control

When we are born again, our spirits become alive. Like our bodies, our spirits grow and mature, and must be nourished in order to develop properly. We know our spirits are healthy if they are producing fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). One of the fruits of the spirit is referred to as temperance, which is the exercising of self-control (1468).

Solomon was talking about self-control in Proverbs 25:28 when he said, “He that hath no rule over his spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.” In other words, a lack of spiritual maturity leaves a person open  to attack. This is an interesting point because in Solomon’s time, people were not born again, the entire population of Israel was dead spiritually. That is why it was inevitable that the Israelites would end up in exile. They were spiritually defenseless.

Being born again doesn’t guarantee spiritual success. After I became a Christian, I read my Bible, attended church, and talked to God on a regular basis, but I still failed miserably with regards to spiritual growth. What I was lacking was spiritual exercise. The apostle Paul used the phrase “walk in the spirit” (Galatians 5:16) to describe spiritual exercise. What Paul meant was for us to allow the Holy Spirit to control our behavior. Really, self-control is not about us being in control, but the Holy Spirit overruling our sinful desires. We have to give him permission to do that.

It is natural to do what we want to. God made man with a free will, therefore, he respects our right to choose for ourselves what we do with our time on earth. When we choose to follow Christ, we are in essence saying that God knows better than we do what choices to make, and yet, most of the time we still do what we want to. It wasn’t until I became “like a city that is broken down, and without walls” (Proverbs 25:28) that I decided to exercise self-control and actually do what God told me to.

Memory

Buried deep within the unconscious mind are a million memories of things that have happened over a lifetime. It says in Proverbs 25:2 that “it is the glory of God to conceal a thing.” One of the reasons we cannot think as God does or understand his way of doing things is because we have so little access to the information that is stored in our brains. Most of the time we are inundated with too much information, more than our brains can process efficiently. Sometimes it may seem as if certain memories are hidden from us. It is as if they have been stored in a secret compartment that we no longer have access to.

Over the past few years, I have been going through a process of recovering memories associated with being raped when I was a teenager. During a conversation with my sister, I learned that she had shared information with someone that I thought was a secret between just the two of us. The knowledge of what had happened caused a shift in my thinking and suddenly everything connected to the event we were talking about became clear to me, it all made sense.

In spite of Solomon’s supernatural wisdom, it appears that he was unable to reflect on past mistakes or make sense of patterns in his own behavior. In Proverbs 25:3, Solomon said, “the heart of kings is unsearchable.” Solomon believed that God controlled his heart (Proverbs 21:1) to the extent that all his actions were divinely ordained. Solomon could not turn to the right or the left without God directing his footsteps (Proverbs 16:9), therefore his thought processes  were limited.

In order for us to understand why we do the things we do, we must be able to access our unconscious minds. It is possible that Solomon was referring to this when he said, “the heart of kings is unsearchable” because according to the Hebrew language, memory is an activity of the heart (3820). Just as trauma can cause various types of amnesia, so may God block certain memories in order to accomplish his purposes.

Compromise

Solomon’s wisdom was supernatural. His request for an understanding heart (1 Kings 3:9) was not about seeing things from a human perspective, but about seeing things from God’s perspective. Solomon’s wisdom enabled him to discern between good and evil and gave him experience in Divine things (2449). As a result of this understanding, it says in 2 Chronicles 8:11 that “Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he built for her; for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy whereunto the ark of the LORD hath come.”

Solomon’s solution of building a separate residence for his foreign wife was a compromise. Solomon didn’t want his marriage to interfere with God’s blessing on the nation of Israel, nor did he want to jeopardize his alliance with Pharaoh, so he came up with a solution that would keep everyone happy. In addition to his discernment of good and evil, Solomon also had prudence in secular matters. He was able to adapt what he knew to what he ought to do in any given situation.

The problem with Solomon’s compromise was it opened the door to secular worship practices in Israel. Solomon’s wife did not convert to Judaism, but remained an Egyptian both culturally and spiritually. She was afforded the luxury of living in God’s holy city without becoming holy herself. An example of this today is the person that goes to church every week, but never becomes a Christian. Solomon’s Egyptian wife never experienced conversion.

And

After Solomon became king, when he prayed for wisdom, God said to him, “Behold I have done according to thy word: lo, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honour; so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days” (1 Kings 3:12-13).

The full extent of Solomon’s riches is not known, but it says in 1 Kings 9:27-28, “And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fet from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.” Today the value of that gold shipment would be about $850 million, so Solomon was definitely a billionaire by today’s standards. I think it’s interesting that when Solomon asked for wisdom, God also gave him wealth. It would appear that they were a package deal, that he couldn’t have wisdom without wealth and vice versa.

When I was a brand new Christian, I asked God to give me a son. He told me that he would give me a son and he was going to give me a husband that would love me. At the time, I didn’t care much if I had a husband, and if I did have one, I didn’t expect him to love me. Now, I realize that a son without a father is not what God wanted for me. In order for my son to be the blessing I was hoping for, he needed a godly father that would raise him to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a true believer, as I am now. I didn’t know that a husband loving his wife was the best example there was of a godly man, and as a true believer in Jesus Christ, that’s what my son needed.

Accountability

Solomon was one of only a handful of men in the Old Testament that the LORD appeared to. Typically, God delivered his messages through prophets and occasionally through angels, but for his most important messages, the LORD delivered them personally. It says in 1 Kings 9:2 “that the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.” “In Gibeon, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night” (1 Kings 3:5). The word translated appeared, ra’ah basically connotes seeing with one’s eyes, but it can also represent perception in the sense of hearing something (7200). Whether or not he saw the LORD in a physical form is not clear, but Solomon knew without a doubt it was the LORD speaking to him.

Because the LORD told Solomon directly what he expected of him, Solomon was accountable for his behavior. The LORD said to Solomon, “if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and judgments: then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel” (1 Kings 9:4-5).

Thank you

A phrase that is sometimes used in business communication is “thank you in advance.” Expressing gratitude for something that has not yet happened is supposed to be a way of encouraging the person to actually do it. God does not need to be encouraged to bless his children. It says in Psalm 149:4, “For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.” The word translated salvation, yeshuwah (yesh – oo´ – ah) means something saved (3444) and it is derived from the word yeshuwa which means “he will save” (3442). The personal name Jesus contains a Greek form of the word yeshu’ah (3444).

Psalm 150:2 refers to the mighty acts and excellent greatness of the LORD. The word translated mighty in this verse is gebuwrah. “The primary meaning of gebuwrah is power and strength” which is associated with the Messiah’s special role (1369). The term praise has various meanings. In psalms 149 and 150, the Hebrew word halal is used. Halal means “to boast” (1984). The fact that the Israelites were expected to praise the LORD for acts not yet completed indicates an element of faith was at work in their worship of the LORD.

In Psalm 149:1, the worshipper is instructed to “sing unto the LORD a new song.” The Hebrew word translated new, châdâsh (khaw – dawsh´) “means ‘new’ both in the sense of recent or fresh and in the sense of something not previously existing” (2319). The choice to believe God and praise or thank him in advance for what he will do is an act of faith. To a certain extent, it does encourage him because he wants us to act on our beliefs, therefore he often responds in a way that reinforces and builds our faith.

It is a privilege to receive God’s special favor, but there is more to our relationship with Christ than having our sins forgiven. After we are saved, God begins a process of sanctification that enables us to be like him and to receive honor as he does. This means that we are assured of victory over our enemies and can “shine” (1984) like he does (Psalm 149:5-9). Praise ye the LORD can simple be translated as, give God credit. We can do that by thanking him in advance.

Laws of nature

When calamity or an unexpected event occurs, it might feel like our lives have been turned upside down. It says in Psalm 146:9, “The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.” The word translated way, derek means a road, but figuratively it can mean “a course of life or mode of action” (1870). God often intervenes in our lives to draw us closer to him and to make us aware that our actions are inappropriate or going to get us into trouble.

God’s judgement is good in that it shows us that we belong to him. It says in Psalm 147:20, “He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgements, they have not known them.” Only Israel has had the privilege of receiving God’s commandments. The Bible would not exist unless God had communicated with his people and helped them to understand his way of doing things.

Even though we may not like God’s way of doing things, it is not optional. It says in Psalm 148:6, “He hath made a decree which shall not pass.” The word translated decree, choq (khoke) means an enactment. God’s laws were enacted at the time of creation, but were not revealed to man until much later. God did not make up the ten commandments when he gave them to Moses, they had already been operating since the beginning of time.

Mercy

God’s mercy can be described as an intentional effort to do something that will benefit us. Most of the time, mercy is displayed when it is least expected. God is the only person adequately equipped to perform acts of mercy because in order for something to be merciful it must change a person’s life. The best example of this is Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross. Jesus had the power to overcome death, the ability to grant eternal life, and a willingness to be crucified. No other man could do what he did.

In some ways, mercy can be understood as the ultimate act of love and yet, it is not really a single act, but the culmination of many acts over a period of time. I think of mercy as being like a marriage proposal that comes after a long courtship that included many acts of kindness in order to win my heart.

The phrase “for his mercy endureth for ever” is repeated 26 times in Psalm 136. Each time it is a response to a statement about God. It might be strange to think that God wants us to love him and has gone to great lengths to win our love, but that is exactly what Jesus’ death on the cross demonstrates. It was not a weak, wimpy expression of love, but a divine proposal to spend eternity with the master of the universe.